Quote from Hangar45 Admin on December 11, 2017, 7:21 am

(Original thread started on 09-08-11 by Mark Speechley)

Hi all. Just checking in as the newest possible convert. I have had grand illusions of building a " Full " 737 cockpit and am in the process of building a large "man" shed in my paddock and am getting quotes and council planning permits to house it. This would include the large curved screen and the 3-5 overhead projectors to give all and sundry the wow factor. However. The plans may have been derailed by pure chance whilst doing cockpit research and coming across this website. Blow me over. I never considered the Lear as the larger brothers seem to have the commercial market sewn up for hardware choice.

 

What the possible game changer for me was, as rightly pointed out, that I will have a greatly expanded number of airports that I will be able to access against the number available for the 737. I might add that I flew a 737 commercial sim cockpit in Melbourne and "sort of" crash landed (but at least it has the word landed in it ! ) into Saint Barts. Might be slightly easier in a Lear. Anyone tried?

 

Anyway. My prime aim is to fly and not spend my married life forever building just to eventually get to fly. In order to consider a switch I just need the obvious noob answers to:

 

1/ Any available kit shells that can be purchased.?

2/ Availability of purchasing instrument panels without the need to manufacture them?

 

Basically I'm more than happy to buy all the parts and then construct everything. I am probably asking too much already but in 2011 are we not there yet ?

 

Love the website and am looking forward to a long partnership where I will eventually be able to contribute knowledge and articles. If someone can point me in the right direction then we might soon have a flood of new Lear jet owners with the right marketing approach. Just look at the number of hits on Youtube for the 737 home cockpit sims.

 

Have a great day and thanking you all in advance for any help.

Kingchiro

 

(Posted by Alaxus on 09-08-11)

Welcome, as a fellow Aussie, we are at a little disadvantage on this side of the world, but all is not lost. Like you I have built a big shed to house all my stuff, including the Lear sim.  Most of the stuff can be made locally here in Aus. There are couple of us in Melbourne building Lear sims, forum member wills and myself.

 

As far a the cockpit goes, you can buy Ron Rollo's plans, then cut out the formers out of MDF, which is cheap. Or you can have a go at my dodgy plans.

 

For the main instrument panel and glare shield, you are looking at between $250-500 to get a CNC place or water jet to cut it out.  For the instruments themselves, most of us on this forum have CNC that will make you some for a price. I have done my own panels. Certainly if you want of the shelf then the 737 / A320 is the way to go.  If your a big bloke, then give the Lear a miss, its pretty tight.

 

One more thing I will add though, the Learjet has way less wiring that a 737. Since it has no overhead panels.

Cheers, alaxus

 

(Posted by Ron Rollo on 09-08-11)

Welcome to the Hangar Mark, I use to say that the Lear45 is a "Do it yourself" project. But over the past two years, it has turned into a "Do it ourselves" project. Nearly all aspects of the project have been covered by all of our members now.

 

If your goal is to fly rather than build, it can be done. We have a few newer members here that are actually flying and making videos! Rand comes to mind. And Eric G. is days away from joining him. I myself am taking a different approach by attempting to build as much as I can and as close to scale as possible before I spend the money on the computers.

 

As for the shell, I have L45-011 in a crate and ready to be shipped. The only issue is going to be the shipping cost to Australia. This is why I have decided to offer shell plans to the Hangar45 members especially for the guys who are over seas from the USA. But I must warn you, the shell kit is a lot of work. Building the shell from the paper plans is A LOT MORE WORK! Please refer to my SAM for details in the amount of work you will be putting into it. You can find the SAM here in the Hangar.

 

http://hangar45.net/lear45-glossary

 

It is all possible, the question is how far do you want to take it and in what time frame?

Welcome to the Hangar!

 

(Posted by Eric Tomlin on 09-08-11)

Yes Mark S, you are coming in at just the right time. In addition to parts/kits offered by others, I myself offer backlit instrument panels as well as some other parts that haven't been shown/announced yet. I would encourage you to take a look at my panels to get an idea of what's been done (or being prepared for release) by myself and know that there are other parts available too from Ron and Vince. The best part about this is that while myself, Ron, and Vince all are friendly competitors (as well as friends), we work hand in hand with each other to insure that everything fits in the simulator as it should. This translates to all of our projects getting done much faster because we're not all duplicating the same parts at the same times currently. In fact, we sometimes buy from each other because it's just easier that way.

 

With this said, I think that your consideration of a LJ45 as a sim is excellent. Jeff is right- the LJ45 is a tight fit but if you're in good condition you can safely get in and out of a shell (I have a friend that constantly comes over and he is 330 lbs) and don't forget, you can forgo a scale shell too. The big draw to me is the amount of airports that can be flown into as you mentioned- that's a big deal for me- and in addition to that, I tend to think it's much more likely I could own a private Learjet than a 737 so it makes the imagination go a bit further too.

 

Whatever your choice, we are here to help- that's why Hangar 45 was created.

 

(Posted by Eric Williams on 09-08-11)

I echo all the points above as well.  I just started my build at the start of this year and have a very large portion of the MIP, Glareshield and console populated already (even taking a few test flights this week). The only hard part- is figuring out who has what parts available when in doubt- post a wanted add in the classifieds and someone will have an answer.

 

Just about everything for the Lear is available here (either kits, or plans or other).  Ron made the plans for the MIP support and console available on the site here- just have them printed full scale and your wooden parts come easily.

 

As Ron pointed out- I have a bunch of videos in my build thread. You can see how fast it came together thanks to the Hangar members. Initially I thought I would try a more generic build, but it is much easier to just use the "tried and proven" methods on this site.  Good luck with your build!

 

(Posted by Will Sasse on 09-08-11)

G'day Kingchiro, What part of Gippsland? I grew up near Koo-wee-rup.

 

As everyone has said, there is a lot happening with Lear45 parts, so your timing is good. There are some wonderful components available from members here, and the effort that has gone into them to make them "real" is amazing. But it definitely is not a plug-n-play project ..... yet!

 

To tempt you a bit, I have just received a Throttle Quadrant from Mark L., Impressive is not strong enough to describe it.....See photo:

 

(Posted by Mark L. on 09-08-11)

Wow Will! That looks fricking AusSome! Kinda cool seeing something I built in someone rig.

 

Kingchiro, welcome to the flock. While some parts might take awhile to obtain (8 weeks in Aussie customs jeez), they do become available and no shortage of help and information from all who come here.

 

(Posted by Mark Speechley on 09-10-11)

Thanks to everyone who has replied. With everyone wading in with their 20 cents worth how could I resist not building a Lear!!!  Welcome everyone to your newest Lear builder!

 

I have been emailing Ron so he will get me started on the "Never Ending Journey". To my new Aussie mates we just might be getting together at times to source our local hardware talent.

 

Just to settle my mind I landed a Lear into St Barthelmy and finally stopped at the sand first go. That is a good test of what my airport list will expand to.

 

Once again thanks to everyone.